One of the biggest golf stories in recent memory didn’t just come together. The latest Phil Mickelson bombshell report was the result of years of reporting that required incredible diligence before publishing.
Longtime golf writer Alan Shipnuck authored the most recent story about Mickelson’s alleged misconduct. The most notable revelations from Shipnuck’s piece for Skratch Golf are that allegations aimed at Mickelson extend beyond the Golf Digest story detailing his expulsion from The Farms Golf Club in San Diego following accusations of inappropriate conduct.
Alan Shipnuck Explains How Phil Mickelson Story Came Together
However, as Shipnuck explained to golf media personality Dan Rapoport, his own reporting began in earnest after the Golf Digest piece dropped.
“(After the Golf Digest story), my phone started ringing. I have a lot of friends in San Diego. I know a lot of people around Phil,” Shipnuck explained on the “Dan on Golf” podcast. “The story was out there, and I started pursuing it and making a few phone calls. If I’m really honest, I wasn’t as aggressive as I could have been.”
Shipnuck wrote the definitive Mickelson biography, titled “Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar,” in 2022. Mickelson certainly didn’t come out of the book looking like a saint, but it wasn’t a total hit piece, either.
“I reached out to people at the Farms, and they didn’t want to talk. I just felt that if I dropped this story with all anonymous sources, Phil was just going to attack me because of our long, complicated history.”
“The book was very balanced, but that’s not how he sees it,” Shipnuck quipped.
Behind the Scenes of Shipnuck’s Mickelson Reporting
As such, Shipnuck felt he needed to have the Mickelson story with full accuracy. While he was reporting, the Golf Digest story dropped, and that’s when Shipnuck went into overdrive. He partnered with Ben Boskovich at Skratch, and they were off to the races.
“I knew there were a lot of other pieces to the puzzle. That’s when I called (Skratch), and I said we’ve gotta put the pedal to the metal on this Phil story,” he continued.
Shipnuck attended the US Open at Shinnecock Hills, but his focus wasn’t on the historic Long Island course. He spent the first few days in the Tri-State area dug in on the Mickelson story and avoided the course on the opening day of the tournament.
“The week of the US Open, I barely covered the US Open until the weekend,” he explained to Rapoport. “I was on the phone constantly. There’s a lot of eyes and ears in the press room. On Thursday, I didn’t even come to the course. I was just barricaded in my room because people were calling me non-stop with these sensitive conversations and they wanted their anonymity protected, and I couldn’t do it from the press room.”
The story dropped on the Skratch website a few days later, but not after an exhaustive vetting process. According to Shipnuck, multiple attorneys and “the most talented fact-checker I know” were part of the process.
“A story like this, you don’t just press publish in a willy-nilly fashion,” he said.
Mickelson has remained silent, and while his representation has pushed back on aspects of the scandal, they haven’t flat-out denied it. There’s also no sign of legal action, at least not yet, which seems to suggest Shipnuck and Co. were right to take their time with this one.
Alan Shipnuck Lays Out Phil Mickelson Bombshell Reporting Timeline